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Analysis & Commentary - Iran Human Rights Project

Iran Human Rights Project Media Articles

17th June 2013 – The New York Times

Rowhani Is a Tool of Iran’s Rulers

Reuel Marc Gerecht

The odds are poor that the election of Hassan Rowhani to the presidency will change Iranian society or diminish the power of the supreme leader Ali Khamenei and his praetorians... more...

17th June 2013 – The Atlantic

Why You Shouldn’t Get Too Excited About Rouhani

Mark Dubowitz

Good riddance: The end of the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad era should be welcomed by all who want to see a free and democratic Iran and a peaceful resolution to the ongoing... more...

14th June 2013 – The Atlantic

Iran Has a Presidential Selection, Not an Election

Mark Dubowitz

"Some people may, for whatever reason, not desire to support the regime of the Islamic Republic, but they certainly want to support their country," said Iran's Supreme Leader... more...

13th June 2013 – Scripps Howard News Service

Iran’s Meaningless Presidential Elections

Clifford D. May

The Islamic Republic of Iran is holding its eleventh presidential election on Friday. It’s all very exciting — just as it was in 1979 when, right after the Iranian Revolution... more...

5th June 2013 – Fox News

Embracing the Stone Age: Iran Retains Medieval Penalty for Adultery

Benjamin Weinthal

Iran just doesn't want to leave the Stone Age. The Islamic Republic's Sharia law-controlled judiciary dismissed the concerns of critics of its barbaric penal system and voted to... more...

2nd June 2013 – The Jerusalem Post

Canadian MPs Decry Iran Human Rights Violations

Benjamin Weinthal

Canada’s Parliament hosted Iran Accountability Week last week, documenting the Islamic Republic’s human rights violations, particularly its clerical leadership’s use of domestic and international... more...

1st June 2013 – Faster, Please! - PJ Media

Iranian Sex and Circuses

Michael Ledeen

Ronald Reagan used to marvel at the tendency of intellectuals and diplomats to get so involved in “understanding” other countries and cultures, no matter how hostile to the USA... more...

16th May 2013 – FDD Policy Brief

Why Iran’s Elections Will Not Be Democratic

Six hundred and eighty six Iranian citizens have registered as candidates for the eleventh presidential elections scheduled to be held in Iran on Friday, June 14, 2013. more...

7th May 2013 – Fox News

Report Finds Iran Among Worst Violators of Religious Freedom

Benjamin Weinthal

Religious freedom is in short supply in the Middle East, according to the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which has issued a report finding Iran chief... more...

16th April 2013 – The Wall Street Journal

A Third Way to Address the Iranian Threat

Michael Ledeen

With an Iranian presidential election coming in June, President Obama may be presented with a second chance to get his policy right. In 2009, when massive protests followed Iran's disputed presidential vote... more...

28th March 2013 – Commentary

Gay—or Left?

On July 19, 2005, authorities in the Iranian city of Mashhad publicly lynched two teenagers, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, for the alleged crime of raping a 13-year-old boy. Horrific pictures of the execution... more...

22nd March 2013 – Fox News

Nursing Mothers Imprisoned: UN Report Details Iranian Persecution of Non-Muslims

Benjamin Weinthal

Iran’s hard-line regime has intensified its violent crackdown on Christians and other religious minorities, even imprisoning nursing mothers for practicing their faith, according to a new... more...

18th March 2013 – The Jerusalem Post

UN Report Reveals Iranian Violence Against Bahais

Benjamin Weinthal

Two new studies have disclosed state-sponsored violence directed at the Bahai religious minority in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Ahmed Shaheed, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, announced the findings of his report last week in Geneva. more...

7th February 2013 – Haaretz

For Iran, the Holocaust is Just Another Tragedy - If It Ever Happened

Iran apologists contend that the Iranian regime behaves rationally and is therefore a fitting partner for nuclear negotiations. But there is nothing rational in Tehran's constant embrace of virulent anti-Semitism and outright Holocaust denial. more...

28th January 2013 – The Wall Street Journal

The Religious Fascism Was No Big Surprise

Michael Ledeen

Houshang Asadi plaintively writes that, as of the moment of the fall of the shah of Iran and the imminent return of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to Tehran in 1979, nobody—not even the best journalists in the country... more...

13th January 2013 – The Jerusalem Post

American Pastor Jailed in Iran Faces Torture

Benjamin Weinthal

The family of American-Iranian pastor Saeed Abedini released a letter from him on Thursday stating that Iranian authorities have threatened him with death because of his belief in Christianity. more...

2nd November 2012 – The Jewish Chronicle

German MPs Do Business with Iran

Benjamin Weinthal

European politicians in Brussels and Berlin have unleashed a storm of criticism over their planned trips to meet representatives of Iran’s regime. A group of five left-wing MEPs had been slated to go... more...

1st November 2012 – The Jerusalem Post

Hague Tribunal Slams Iran for Mass Murder

Benjamin Weinthal

A non-binding legal tribunal in The Hague consisting of political victims of Iran’s regime in the 1980s issued an interim report in late October slamming Tehran’s clerical leaders for massive human rights... more...

24th October 2012 – The Washington Times

For Iran, No Red Line Means Green Light

Michael Ledeen

On Sept. 17, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations that the world must draw a clear “red line” around the Iranian nuclear weapons program, and tell... more...